The Six E’s of Active School Travel: How Active and Safe Routes to School (ASRTS) Programs Across Canada Increase the Number of Children Walking to School Every Day ( breakout presentation )

Abstract

In this ASRTS Canada collaborative presentation, three Active and Safe Routes to School (ASRTS) Programs from different regions of the country will discuss the various strategies they employ to increase the numbers of children engaged in sustainable, healthy school travel every day. The numbers of children who walk or bike to school on a daily basis has been in steep decline since the early 1980’s, with a nationwide average of less than 20% of Canadian schoolchildren regularly walking or biking to school in 2015, from a high of over 80 % in the 1970’s. This has resulted in vehicle congestion around schools, poor air quality due to the high volume of vehicles, increased injuries due to increased traffic, and poor health outcomes as children are increasingly driven short distances instead of exercising. Starting in Europe in the 1970’s, and adopted in Canada in the mid 1990’s, ASRTS programs across the country seek to improve the health of our population through daily exercise, cleaner air due to reduced vehicle emissions, and fewer injuries due to safer infrastructure and fewer vehicles on the roads. To do this, these programs have adopted many of the principles of the Safe Routes to School Partnership in the United States, that being the six E’s: Evaluation, Engineering, Events, Enforcement, Equity, and Encouragement. In Canada, our programs have focused much of our efforts on a process known as School Travel Planning, whereby local residents and the school community are active participants in identifying the barriers to Active Transportation in their community, provide input on ways to remove these barriers, and become engaged in seeking resolution to these issues on an ongoing basis. This presentation will discuss specific actions and programs employed to encourage Active School Travel, successes and failures, and lessons learned from these three ASRTS organizations in different regions of Canada. If you are interested in promoting healthy school travel in your community, we invite you to attend and share your stories with us as well, as we seek to make our children safer, healthier and happier.